FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA.

It's instructive, and sometimes scary, to look at the stencils on railroad tank cars or to become familiar with what those numbers on the placards mean.  But Maine Central safety supervisor Geoffrey Doughty gets a different sort of fish story to tell.  First, though, he shares the experience that comes with being the FNG.

Frequently the job involved hazardous materials, and every call made me wish I had paid greater attention to my high school chemistry teacher. Any time a car containing hazmat derailed the safety department became involved. One of my first experiences was in early May when a tank car of liquefied petroleum gas derailed near Twin Mountain, N.H. As it was morning, my more experienced partner said he’d go up and suggested I follow in the afternoon so he could go home. I was the low man on the seniority list, so I had no reason to object. It was a lovely day in Portland; the sun was out and it was a balmy afternoon in the high 70s as I drove north. By the time I arrived in the White Mountains (near the famed Mt. Washington Hotel), the temperature was hovering around 35 degrees and snowflakes were falling. I was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and a light jacket.

Lesson of the day: Have warm clothes in the trunk of your car. Although there was no spill or leak, I still had to babysit the scene until the car was back on the rails. By dusk, it was sent on its way.

On other occasions, the 3 am phone call involves biological, not chemical, spills.  “We just dumped 10,000 gallons of fish oil in the Penobscot River. What do you want to do about it?”  After business hours, the Coast Guard are the controlling authority.

Fish were processed at a facility in Eastport, Maine, at the far end of Maine Central on the soon-to-be abandoned Eastport Branch. Tank cars of fish oil were filled there and shipped to some other plant that used it in fertilizer.

“Why did we dump 10,000 gallons of fish oil in the Penobscot?” I asked.

Apparently, the spill occurred in Bangor Yard during switching moves. The cap on the bottom of the car wasn’t seated properly and came off, dumping the smelly fluid on the ground, into a sewer, and into the adjacent river.

“Let’s see,” I said groggily. “It’s not really hazardous, although the smell could start a stampede … [sleepy pause] … It’s only going back where it came from … [another sleepy pause] … Call the Coast Guard and ask if there’s anything we have to do.”

From the Penobscot to the Atlantic ... “Coast Guard says that it’s only going back to where it came from. Good night!”